@pedant (and just to include @jimthefish ) Many thanks. Have dealt with the one that posted the spam. I also noticed a few other dodgy ones but am reluctant to jump to conclusions. I mean, slickhotness and fdsa may be very dedicated Doctor Who fans. I’m not counting on it, but innocent until proven guilty.

Unless I’m in someway special and have been singled out, some of you may have received a message from @keranuu6543 inviting you to be her friend (and has very kindly supplied me with her private email address). I’m pretty sure I don’t need to say this but do not respond.

Keran / Karen claims to work for the US Army but, given the English – ie correct 😉 – spelling of several words, as opposed to American English, I suspect she’s not all she claims to be.

@bluesqueakpip I have “spammed” them. I’ve “spammed” four new members today. Once again, not much I can do as they are real people, not bots. Sorry about the emails – does seem a busy day for them. The schools are back today – is that a factor? Who knows?

Thanks for your vigilance! I zapped both Ariana and Lambarth Peter into the trash bin as soon as spotted in my inbox today. All these dodgy looking strangers begging for my friendship leaves me feeling anything but friendly 😡

The second, though, is a newer one for us, and one we feel obligated to confront. On the web, a certain kind of comment content “gray area” has emerged in recent years, and it’s making our conversations unnecessarily toxic. It’s called discussion hijacking (which is essentially just trolling),

Bloody kids – finding a phenomenon and thinking they are the first to see it.

ROFFL ! Yeah, I get that. Reminds of people on web forums talking about something that someone else just wrote but the first person wanted to be the one to notice it or else hadn’t read the comments at all.

I was well aware that there would be a bunch of idiots signing up for this season just to post stupid or hateful comments about a female Doctor or too many people of colour etc. However, I am also aware that we have a great community here, and the trolls (which is what they are) are shot down quickly. And I love you all for that.

I’m okay with leaving up the troll comments if they are shot down, or just ignored. If they do start to derail the conversation then I or Jim will step in. But the old (ha “old”) adage always applies – don’t feed the trolls.

Just ignore them. I’m in two minds about deleting posts. If something is objectively offensive, to someone or about the programme, then yes, but if someone is just proving themselves a racist or an idiot I kinda feel it should be left up so they can look a fool online forever.

When this site first started I, and others, used to have hours of arguments with trolls and idiots and they eventually went away – they’re still up for anyone who wants to search them out. I’m glad we did that though – because we now have the site we have.

I don’t really mind the on-topic trolls as there’s enough intelligent and articulate voices to put them in their place. And as @craig says, it’s only to be expected this year and it really hasn’t been half as bad as I was expecting. The only thing I’ve really modded was one comment that was to my view pretty damn misogynist. I did briefly ponder just editing out the offensive phrases but figured that’s a dangerous rabbit hole to fall down and blanket deletion is probably better.

I think I’m with @craig that unless it becomes out-and-out offensive it’s better just to leave the posts up for people to engage with or ignore as they wish. Most of these posts do little but expose their idiocy and lack of thought anyway and I think it’s better that’s out there for all to see.

As I said, we’re keeping an eye on it. Most of the trolls seem to be ‘one comment and they’re out’ kinds, but if it does get out of hand we will step in. You don’t have to read it. I’ve seen plenty of reviews and comments online of, for example, “Rosa” that have been extremely critical.

What I don’t want is any dissension stamped on just because some people don’t agree with it. People are entitled to their opinions and we should be open to that. I’m not the automatic deleting kind.

When this site first started there were a few at the Guardian that said “Oh, that’s the site where everyone just agrees with everyone else”. That’s obviously been false from the start – what it is, what it should be, is the site where everyone is civil to everyone else, no matter their difference of opinion, beliefs, race, country of origin etc.

If I’m honest, there have been times when I thought you, @pedant, had stepped over the line or at least been very close to it, but I let it go. So I give the same courtesy to others. If it’s one post and we never see them again, fine. If a pattern of behaviour develops then action might have to be taken. That’s how I try to moderate things.

I may be wrong – but so far it’s worked and we’ve attracted some wonderful members who enjoy this place.

Yeah, it’s mostly troll and run at the moment, or people who get the message that there’s not much sympathy to be had for them here. We haven’t had a really persistent problem for years now I don’t think.

I didn’t write the code for this site, just bodged it together overnight one Christmas using WordPress and Buddypress. For some reason, if you make an edit too quickly or too many times it thinks you’re spamming the site. It’s always a good idea to copy your post before hitting “Submit” just in case.

I think there are few personal attacks here. But a few rude comments which is different. I know mum handled the one about “phd who gives a shit?” which is pretty personal. She just shook her head. Then did bullet points. It’s the nature of those people. They simply want something to hate, find a discussion and then crap on. Not sweet. With Social commentary I type “OK” and then they get real mad.